Also celebrated on February 19.
I selected him among the several saints purely for his name, which I translate as "What God Wants," a variation on the prayer, "Thy will, not mine, be done." I think this is among the coolest of the saints' names, and somewhere in one of the infinite parallel universes, where I am a cardinal, I am campaigning to be the next pope so I can rename myself Quodvultdeus.
The saint himself, by the way, was driven from his bishopric in Carthage by Arians. He survived and worked in Naples, but those Arian bastards held North Africa for another fifteen years.
Since it is apparently a day for hagiographic silliness, I'll point that when St. Cedd died of the plague in Lastingham (somewhere up around Yorkshire, I gather), thirty monks hurried to the area, vowing to live near their spiritual father, or at least be buried near him. Sure enough, thirty plague victims later, their wish was granted.
Sincerely glad your father didn't know you would choose that name!
ReplyDeleteLove the story about St. Cedd,though. Pious lemmings!